WOAI Local News Sponsored by Five Star Cleaners

Speakers Shout Down Proposed Plastic Bag Ban

by Jim Forsyth

At the first opportunity for public comment on a proposed ban on those single use plastic grocery bags in San Antonio, speakers made it very clear that they oppose the proposal, 1200 WOAI news reports.

"What is so difficult about operating a plastic bag ban is the way we are forced to treat our customers," Dya Campos of HEB, the city's largest user of plastic bags, told the meeting."It is not how we want to operate."

Councilman Cris Medina has submitted a memo to city council to discuss the idea of a bag ban.It will appear on council's governance committee agenda next week.

"In our creekways we see it littering our parks," Medina said following the meeting."I think San Antonio can see some significant change when it comes to using these bags.

Campos said in Brownsville, where a bag ban is in place, it has become a major inconvenience for customers.Other retailers said the same thing.

"In Brownsville, Wal-Mart has customers who have to come and get their groceries with luggage, because that is the only option that they have."

Other speakers said more of an effort should be made to encourage recycling of the plastic bags, but Medina said efforts to do that have not been successful.

Even Keep San Antonio Beautiful spoke out against a bag ban, saying other options are likely to be more successful.

City officials said they will make a recommendation to City Council next week.

In some cities with bag bans, customers can pay $1 per trip to the store for paper bags.That money is frequently used for retailers to buy cloth bags for low income shoppers.

There were also concerns that the cloth bags are dirty and allow customers to take germs into the store.

Medina said he is not wedded to a complete ban on plastic bags, and he also said a public vote on whether to ban plastic bags is also a possibility.